Author: Mathias Malzieu
Dates read: April 21, 2010 - April 26, 2010 (6 days)
Pages: 172
Still behind schedule, but at least I finished this one in under seven days! This strange title caught my eye on a display table and the concept was so unique that I moved it to the top of my reading list.
This novel follows a boy named Jack who is saved at birth in Edinburgh in 1874 when the witch doctor who delivered him attaches a cuckoo-clock to his damaged heart in order to keep it beating. Abandoned by his mother, the witch doctor takes him in and raises him, warning him that his heart is too fragile for strong emotions, so he must never fall in love. But of course he does, with a young singer that he follows across Europe in the hope that she will love him too if he can find her.
This books is so incredibly unique and visual. Jack is fascinating, and the first person narration helps the heart-run-by-a-clock concept come across very viscerally since Jack often describes what it feels like. It’s part fairy tale, part tragedy, and a very simple but elegant way to look at the pain of loneliness and unrequited love versus the potential pain of heartbreak. The story moves quickly and covers a lot of ground without feeling like any of Jack’s emotional development gets short shift, and the supporting characters are often as quirky and unique as he is, moving in and out of his life providing narrative spark while Jack figures himself out. There isn’t a single moment in the book that doesn’t feel one hundred percent unique to the world of this story, and it leaves you wanting more in a good way at the end. I definitely recommend it.
